Chapter 49

Forty-Nine

WESLEY

I swallowed hard. “Don’t leave me,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes that I fought to keep from falling.

Wherever the wolf had gone, I knew it wasn’t far. What if it cast me out and left Finn here to die? Or even ripped out his soul again and forced it to relive another mortal life? Would there be anything left of the man I was coming to love?

I gasped, heart flipping over in a rise of unfamiliar terror. It was too soon. We barely knew each other. Hell, Finn barely knew himself. And yet I couldn’t imagine going forward into whatever the bitches of fate had woven for me without him.

“I wish I could touch you,” Finn said, staring up at the sky through the trees, still lying motionless. “But you should go back to Summer. He’ll keep you safe.”

“I don’t want to go back to Seb. I want to be here with you.”

He sat up, the darkness covering his face. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Leaving me here alone would hurt me,” I huffed.

He looked away from me, toward another statue. “The kitten is gone.” He let out a long sigh. “I was hoping he could help get you out so you were safe.”

“Are you listening to me at all?”

“I don’t know what to do,” Finn said.

“Get up,” I demanded.

He grimaced, but got to his feet.

“Come here.”

He hesitated, but slowly approached until I said, “Stop.” He stood outside the barrier, about a half meter from being jolted again. I stood on the other side wishing I could reach through it and kiss him, hold him, offer him comfort even while he looked like the darkness was eating him.

“I had power for like two seconds,” he said. “I thought I could control it. I needed to see you and it happened, the magic brought me there. I hoped it could fix whatever’s wrong with me. But the other wolf severed my tie to the packs.”

“Oberon. You remember him, right? Odion? Winter’s curse was spreading to the wolves. He had to cut your tie to them to save them.”

Finn flinched and looked away. “I didn’t mean to hurt them.”

“I know, baby.”

He paced away from me, down the path and back, his heart racing loud enough for my sensitive ears to catch. “I know I’m supposed to be this,” he waved his hands in the air, “powerful fae king with a crazy past. The memories feel like a dream of something I once saw on television.” He pressed his palm to his chest. “Like it’s not me.”

“It is, and it isn’t,” I said. “You and the wolf are one. It split your mortal soul free to try to give you a normal life free of all the sorrow that built the…” I hesitated to say it.

“Beast. You can say it. I know what it is. It’s a monster. I have vivid memories of the blood I shed, even if it’s distant.”

“But that’s the point,” I said. A kindness from the wolf, though like most things planned by fate, it always came back to bite us in the ass in the end. “He wanted you to have a chance to live and experience love without all the pain.” The wolf took the beast half and the curse, leaving Finn as little more than an ordinary young man.

“Then why drag me back?” Finn demanded. He turned and scanned the sanctuary. “I can feel you watching me. Why torture me? Why give me hope only to rip it away?”

“Because the curse is overwhelming him and if he dies, so do you.” My heart ached at the thought. “You are one soul split into two beings. It weakens you both.” His gaze met mine and the sadness in his eyes made me wish I could wrap my arms around him. “He could have let himself die, which would have dragged you with him. An abrupt ending to your normal life.”

“But then you and I wouldn’t have met, right?”

“Maybe that would have been better?”

He flinched.

“I don’t mean for me,” I corrected. “For you. If you didn’t have to know you were bound to me? Why choose a guy like me? I’m not exactly the ideal mate. Liam is. His strength is nearly unmatched among wolves, as is his heart. And his power as a wizard focuses their power and helps his mate secure their realm. I’m really only good at running away. And can’t even help warn you of coming trouble because the closer I am to you, the less likely I am to have a vision with you in it. I’m useless.”

“No,” he said. “This mate thing is intense. I can feel you wrapped around my heart. I’ve spent my whole life wondering what it really felt like. Reading books and watching movies and trying a handful of relationships but feeling empty, until you. It’s this weight of something in my soul…”

Weight. I sighed, hating the idea of being a burden to anyone.

“An anchor,” he said after a pause, his gaze lifting to meet mine again. “To keep me grounded, and remind me of the way home.” He stalked to the barrier and I sucked in a breath fearing he’d hurt himself, but he lifted his hands and held them just beyond the rippling color of it. Electricity snapped at him in warning, but he didn’t break away. “I have to defeat the final boss to get to you.” He motioned to the path and all the statues surrounded by barriers. “Each memory is a level up until the final boss.”

“Huh?”

“You ever play video games?”

“No. Seb does, and some of the others in the wolf pack.”

“The game always ends with a final boss, then shifts to a movie cut scene that wraps up the storyline. Defeat the boss, save the princess.” He gave me a sad smile. “But the final boss is me.”

“The final boss is Winter. She’s been unraveling the control of you and your wolf for a long time.”

He shook his head. “I had a glimpse of the power. The wolves were part of it. But there’s something in me that I was born with, a rage that can be terrifying and monstrous. The wolf took that half, the nightmare, even though it wasn’t his to control. It’s insane.”

“When provoked,” I agreed. “We can all be chaos when provoked.” He had no idea of the beast I could be. “Witchborn comes with a lot of curses.”

“And power.”

I bit my tongue to keep from voicing the adage that power corrupted as obviously that madness had taken the wolf a long time ago. Could his other half be saved at all, or would re-uniting his soul destroy them both? I’d seen power rip apart realms.

“I have to face them all, right?” Finn asked, his gaze following the path of memories to be unlocked. “Remember who I was to figure out who I am?”

“Yes,” I said while fearing his sweet subtle strength would be lost under the weight of his traumatic past.

“I hope you don’t hate me when this is over,” Finn whispered, not looking back my way. He headed down the path to a statue without a barrier. “I hate that you’re mated to me and don’t have a choice. What if all this is meant to make me lose control?”

“I’m your anchor, remember?”

He glanced up, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. The dark blotch of the curse slowly crept across his skin, making him ghoulish-looking, but he nodded. “You’re safe in there, right?”

I shrugged, looking around. “It’s not a five-star hotel with room service, but I’ve had worse.”

“You’re saying you’re high maintenance.”

“What was your first clue?”

He laughed, and the sound loosened some of the lingering sense of doom inside me. “I wish I could kiss you again.”

“Incentive,” I said.

“Thanks,” he replied.

“For what?”

“For being you. Which is sometimes a prickly asshole, but always exactly what I need.”

“Sap.”

He laughed again, then sobered as he reached for the statue. “Be safe. I’ll understand if you need to call Summer to pull you out again while I’m gone. Just be safe please.” Finn set his hand on the statue before I could respond, and for the first time I saw it from inside the sanctuary. He turned into a solid thing as though carved to the statue, and as I closed my eyes, I could sense him opening his to another piece of the puzzle fitting together his past.

“You too,” I whispered. “Be safe, Finn, and remember, no matter what you see, you made it through.”